Children’s and parents’ participation: current thinking

This chapter seeks to ground the reader in some of the key concepts and thinking relevant to the research that populates the following chapters. It starts by considering what participation means, and for whom, exploring theoretical concepts such as Arnstein’s ladder of participation (1969) and Hart’s (1992) later adaption for the context of children’s participation, as well as other frameworks particularly useful for exploring participation in public services. This is followed by an exploration of some of the key issues and considerations specific participation in the context of children’s social care. How participation is defined tends to differ depending on who is ‘participating’, in what context, and for what end. In this chapter, we are particularly interested in participation within children’s social care, meaning the two groups that we will be exploring when discussing participation will be children and young people and parents within children’s social care. The rest of the chapter is then given to exploring some of the research relevant to the involvement of parents and children in social care decision making – namely through meetings held with professionals. In particularly, this section focuses on the roles of professionals in enabling meaningful participation in decision making, and some of the challenges involved.